Actually, if you're going to be honest, the team wasn't much different than it is now. Poor lines, a couple of standouts on defense, a few solid WRs, a decent RB situation if only by committee, a good TE, comparable kicker.
It gets a little old hearing about how he cut three linemen consuming 20 million in cap space who were all in their 30s and having to hear what a brainy cap cleanup that was. For cryin' out loud, a blind, deaf, and dumb man could have fixed our cap in half an hour when he came on board.
Our OL that season, 2000, the year before he came on, was,
Carman and Fina at the Ts, Panos or Conaty at C, and Brown and Ostroski at Gs. How the hell is that so much different than the meathead, slob line we have now? Villarrial's at least as old as Ostroski was then. Teague's no better than Panos or Conaty. The rest suck.
Defensively we had Henry Jones who was no worse than Milloy. Cowart, Holicek, Newmann, Porter, Pat Williams in his prime.
Anyone thinking we're so much better is hallucinating.